Multiple gunmen ambushed an outdoor party in one of Pittsburgh’s eastern suburbs, killing five people and wounding three others around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
TV station WPXI reported that four people, three women and a man, were declared dead at the scene. Four other people were taken to Presbyterian Hospital in the second major mass shooting to occur in the small suburb of Wilkinsburg.
One of the wounded women died and, according to police Lt. Andrew Sherman, the other three are in “critical or stable condition.”
There were at least two gunmen and they are still at-large Thursday overnight. WPXI said the gunmen ambushed a back-yard barbecue party at 1304 Franklin Ave. from two different angles.
Emergency crews blocked off the 1300 block of Franklin Avenue, a residential area east of Pittsburgh proper has seen considerable economic decline in recent decades.
Witness Kayla Alexander told WPXI that she was about 26 shots as she walked home and then saw four people running from the area.
“This street is always quiet. There’s nothing but kids on this street,” she told the station.
Another neighbor, who would not provide her name but told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review she lives next door to the shooting scene, said she also heard about 20 shots and “it sounded like a war.”
Police neither had made any arrests nor mentioned any suspects or motive early Thursday morning.
Wilkinsburg was the site of another mass shooting, a racially-motivated rampage in March 2000 by Ronald Taylor, a black man who killed three whites and wounded two at a McDonald’s and a Burger King.
He was sentenced to death in 2002.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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